Travellin' man (and woman) - 27 June 2014 - Brunnen to Bad Kohlgrub

Today we left Switzerland for Germany, this entailed an early start as we were catching the 09:32 from Zurich to Munich. So it was up at 06:00, a lovely sunny morning. Mein Host at the bed and breakfast had left us cereal, yogurt, fruit and tomatoes for our breakfast which was nice of her. We picked up coffee and croissants at Brunnen station and juggled them, two suitcases and two rucsacs onto the train.

It was the 07:21 from Brunnen to Zug, where we had four minutes to get from platform 3 to platform 5 by subway with big cases. Platform 5 is on a different branch to platform 3 so it was quite a feat to have managed it. Here we caught the train to Zurich, arriving at about 08:15, so plenty of time to catch our next connection. Given that Zurich is populated by "The Gnomes" and given it's a major financial centre of the world and it's prime commuting time I think we saw at most three people in suits, they either go in cognito or it's all an elaborate lie!

We had half an hour siting on the station, lots of comings and goings, unfortunately I was not my normal schoolboy self rushing backwards and forwards along the platform as I was suffering the after effects of to many wheat beers the night before!

I did manage to see the Stuggart train arrive, pulled in by an engine then uncoupled and another engine arrive to be the motive power which coupled up with the carriages.

Our train was shunted in so was not so exciting. I had booked effectively five sets of tickets for this journey, our Rail card from Brunnen to St Margrethen on the Swiss border, St Margrethen to Lindau (the first stop in Germany, an island on Lake Constantine) and Lindau to Bad Kohlgrub, plus seat reservations between Zurich and Lindau and Lindau and Munich, different seats but in the same carriage. Doing it this way saved quite a bit of money as the tickets in Germany as so much cheaper than Switzerland, in fact two people travel anywhere in Germany with special tickets for something like €28 as long as you don't use the ICE trains.

The train from Zurich to Munich was very busy and I was pleased I had booked seats, although given we were on the platform before the train arrived I expect we would have got seats.  At various points people were standing in the aisles, which Beverley was not very pleased about as they choose to stand right next to her. The on board 'mini-bar' serving hot drinks and snacks was manned by a very cheerful Bangledeshian, I know this because someone asked him if he came from Sri Lanka! How he managed to move his trolley up and down the aisle was little short of a miracle!

Given the journey was just under four hours it went pretty quickly. I spent most of my time catching up with this blog. I did have my tickets inspected three times, and was asked for my MasterCard which of course had been stolen so had to supply my passport. Given that we went Switzerland to Austria, and Austria to Germany I was surprised that there was no passport control, well not really as it would have taken hours, however when travelling from Luino in Italy to Bellinzona (sounds like a Roxy Music song) by train and couple of years ago the Swiss boarder control where on board to check our passports and ask where we going and why we were going there, very nicely I might add.

Arrived in Munich two minutes late, we had departed two minutes late, I travel a lot on trains all over the country in England and very rarely do the trains arrive on time and that's when they depart on time, so that was a good effort by the Swiss Railways.

And so to Munich, what a huge station and what a varied amount of trains, we had an hour here, first stop the loo and then pick up some lunch, it was a pleasant change to purchase a small snack and coffee for a reasonable price after the excesses of Switzerland. Like our stations people were giving a way freebies, in this case it was ice pops, not one but two, we dumped one and had the other a rather over sweet black cherry affair.

We now had two more trains to catch, a local service to Murnau, where we changed on to even smaller local service, two carriages only to our final destination, Bad Kohlgrub. When I booked the accommodation the agent said I could get a taxi and the station, I don't think so. So not knowing where we were or where we were staying we walked down the road into town, shortly we found map board, which not only has the town map it also displays local walks just like they have in France. We were surprised to find that the road we wanted was just behind us. This was encouraging, we walked off down the road, walked back and walked down again without much success. I must admit I'm never sure how to interrupt continental addresses. Finally having asked a couple of people we arrived. The stupid thing is that where we are staying is called the Linbach Hof, which was sign posted at the top of the road and also carved into the front of the building. If that had been included in the address we would have been fine. So in fact our accommodation is about 7 minutes walk from the station.

Our host did not speak English (why should she) we don't speak Germany so see summoned the services of her neighbour Rosie to act as interpreter. Having managed all the formalities it ws time to rush down to this very pleasant town to buy in some supplies for the weekend.

We finished the day off with a meal in a local resturant, sitting outside in the sun, it was an Itialian resturant so we finished off the evening saying goodbye in Italian!

"We do that in England" - 25 June 2014

Today was move on day, we leave Barabara and Charlie to continue our holiday on Lake Luzern staying in a B&B at Brunnen. But first I got up early to have some time down at Neuchatel Railway Station, this enabled me to give Charlie one final farewell before he departed for work.

I find being on a railway station early in the morning during rush hour but not having to travel to work very satisfying. I had arrived at 06:40, the sun had risen and was throwing some great light on to the railway and platforms. The station was not that busy, there were a few people about, grabbing a quick smoke before boarding their trains. As 07:00 approached more commuters arrived and so did more trains. The busiest period was between 07:00 and 08:00, and I noticed that Neuchatel is really a terminus, most trains come in from the east and depart for the east, only a few come in from the west and continue out to the east.

Neuchatel Station early morning

I noticed some shunting going on down the far end of the station, but by the time I got there the engine and moved out to the sidings. There was a road running alongside the railway with a low fence which I noticed from the railway overbridge and made a B line for it and was rewarded with some shunting as an engineers train arrived.

Having had my fix of train movements I went back to join Beverley and Barabara for one last breakfast before we walked down into town to purchase a Swiss Army knife, what else would you buy in Switzerland other than Chocolate! I've had a number of Swiss Army knifes but the most recent one has been mislaid, being on holiday I feel a little lost without it as it's so useful, we had seen them in Bern yesterday at between SF19 and SF20 but was not sure how that compared with the UK, a search on Amazon showed the same knife would cost about £12, so basically the same price. I'm now the proud owner of a new knife, I expect the old one will turn up now, just like the video battery.

We had a wander along the lakeside as far as the harbour before returning for lunch on the bus, that is lunch back at the house, returning by bus. Then it was time to say goodbye, we caught the 13:01 from Neuchatel and finally arrived at Brunnen at about 16:10, having changed at Bern and Luzern, we missed the connection at the latter as we were at the end of the train and our departing train was not on the platform I expected. We got to the right platform jumped on the train but nothing happened, it was the front four coaches only. I expected to wait another hour but there was another departure in 9 minutes.

The B&B was only 3 minutes from the station in fact it over looked the end of the platform, you had a good view of the trains whilst sitting on the throne! It was a traditional Swiss chalet but for some reason a petrol station / garage was opposite it and behind it was car dealership. We were located in the loft of the house where there was a shared bathroom ( but luckily no other guests) and a small kitchenette with fridge and kettle. The bed was very low but comfortable. I paid SF 120 per night which is expensive compared to the Uk, but it was comfortable, clean and the breakfast set us up for the day the following morning.

I always feel a little lost on arriving at a new place aboard I don't know and where I don't know the langauge, this being the first time we had experienced German, generally I can get by with Spainish, Italian and French but German is a different thing altogether. I thought a Zimmer was a walking aid but in German it parking.

We wandered around the small town down to the lakeside, looked in the various bars and restaurants for somewhere to dine, I'm always a bit cautious as I continuously believe I'm going to be ripped off, which is very unfair on the locals. Beverley suggested going back to the B&B to check out Trip Advisor. On the way back I thought the lady crossing the road was from the B&B, she wasn't, and I expect she is mightily confused when some middle aged Englishman says hello not just once but twice, with the second one being very loud. She turned round and mumbled a hello and hurried on, if that was you I apologise 

We finally settled on a very expensive restaurant, Gasthaus PLUSPUNKT, just around the corner, where we had a very nice meal, in a very nice setting with good service, they were surprised when I left a tip 'We do that in England" I said.

Literally 'All abroad with the Admiral' as we go boating on Lake Luzern - 26 June 2014

As part of my objective to use our Swiss Rail card as much as possible to obtain as much value as possible I had arranged an extravaganza end to end day of travelling, after all we've not done very much so far have we!

We started off catching the 10:11 Ferry from Brunnen to Fluelen. I've wanted to go back to Fluelen ever since we past through two years ago. It had made a big impression on me, We had had to change from a coach onto a train at this point after our original train had been cancelled owing to a landslide. I remember the station being connected to the lake and at that precise point in time a steamer was leaving the harbour heading into the lake, which was a torquise colour with the mountains all around. I just had to go back. In addition the railway line has consent freight trains running up and down!

The boat trip was very pleasant if a little chilly sitting up the front, we moved to the back where we were out of the wind. The boat stops off at a number of points along the route, finally arriving at Fluelen at about 11:00. We had a hour before catching the next boat back. We had a walk around the small town, plenty of bars etc but no shops, we found a deli and brought some lunch, rolls, cheese and ham, I could use my new knife to cut up the cheese.

Whilst Beverley sat in the sun feeding the ducks I stood on the station and filmed the trains using my new monopod for the first time. I was not disappointed with my half hour on the station!

The next boat, which was a paddle steamer would take us to Vitznau where we would catch the Rigi Kulm rack railway. Again we alternated our position from front to back, felt a little conscious eating our own lunch on board but even Admiral's have to look after the francs in their pockets. This boat trip was almost two hours long, it was very nice, the views magnificent and the sun was shining.

The Rigi Kulm is not just a tourist rack railway it's a real working railway as well and to prove the point a cement mixer was being loaded onto a flat truck, I don't mean a cement mixer I mean one of those you get on the back of a lorry. Then a mini skip lorry was driven on to another flat truck, and I noticed on the way up concrete platforms next to the railway where farmers could load their churns onto the train. As we travelled up the mountain, which is over six thousand feet tall, there were quite a lot of building works, new apartments, restaurants etc for the winter sking I expect but all these sites were being served by the railway, it even looked as if they had built a special siding to serve the sites.

A Nun got on with a dog and supplies for the nunnery, got off and drove off in a 4x4. There was an Irish lady with a very demanding baby, well she had ginger hair, who was on the go all the time, exploring, grabbing, pulling, feeding and pinching, and the baby was not much better.

The trip to just below the summit took a little over half an hour, at the top you had an assortment of restaurants and shops and in this case a huge telecoms pylon. We walked up to the very top, the views were better than I expected, what I mean is that I thought it would be misty but it was not to bad, mainly hazy. These summits are so different to ours in England, they very manicured, nice paths laid out etc and you can walk in all directions of the compass, I know we came by train but there can't really be that much of an achievement in walking this peak as there's a path the entire way up and not much needed in the way of map reading!

On our decent we got off at Kaltbad First to catch the Cable Car down, big mistake it was rammed packed. The locals new what they were doing, they stood outside until it was time to leave and then jumped on, not only did they have a window view they were also next to the door for a quick getaway. Seriously, the cable car was packed tighter than my commuter train home, and the smell was not great too, but I expect I was contributing to that as much anyone else!  On the plus side it only took 10 minutes and took us to Weggis another town we had not visited and another boarding port for the boat.

By now I was rather dehydrated so had to purchase a bottle of water, this cost SF3.50 from a kiosk on the lakeside, now that I do call expensive almost £3! We had a short wait for the boat which was the last one to Brunnen, it went a slightly different way visiting the end of the Statter See calling at Ennetburgen and Buochs. I think it was Ennetburgen which had a strange phenomena a river running into the lake which was higher than the lake, if you get what I mean, and I don't me a waterfall, the river was quite obviously running down hill into the lake.

As the boat called at the other stops Beckenried, Gersau and Treib most people got off until we were the last couple at the end of the boat, apart from a large Asian group, who at one point I thought were all going to fall in the lake as they sat on the handrail of the boat.

Arrived back at Brunnen at about 18:40, Beverley suggested that we did not go back to the B&B as we would most probably fall asleep so we made direct to a bar we had see the previous evening ordered a couple of Weiss beers, which went down a treat at SF6 each for 500cl. I also established they did food after an assortment of mimes and pigeon English. We ended up with a big pizza, chicken schnitzel in a bun and big bowl of fries - cost SF28 not bad at all.

To finish off the evening we caught the train to Zug, it was a five minutes late, shock horror. We had 30 minutes in Zug enough time to walk down to the lake sit on a bench for four minutes and take a couple of photos return to the station and buy a couple of coffees, again the train was a couple of minutes late on arrival. So you can't set your watch by the Swiss trains after all!

You can set your watch to a Swiss Train, there so reliable. - 24 June 2014

Today was the first day using our Swiss Rail pass, this provides free travel on all trains, buses and boats, also free entry to over 400 museums and reduced travel on cable cars, chair lifts and mountain railways. There quite expenses but if used well provide good value for money.

I had already done some pre-planning and knew that we would be going on a cruise on Lake Neuchatel, in fact a return trip for both of us on Lake Neuchatel would cover the cost of the Swiss card for today (Swiss Cards are valid for a predetermined length of time, in our case four days). What I hadn't done was study the boat timetable in any great detail and it turns out that there was limited services on the lake and that we did not really want to spend hours in say Murten or Biel/Bienne apparently it's a boring trip by boat there.

So with Barbara's help the night before we worked out an intinary that would take us on a boat cruise to Murten, give us a few hours in Bern and then another train trip to Interlaken and back, total ticket cost at face value Swiss Francs 213, pounds in already!

So we set off to catch the 10:00 ferry to Murten, the weather was overcast and a little drizzly. We were joined on the ferry by two groups of school children all wildly excited, one group were taken outside onto the top deck and thrown overboard, the younger ones left inside with the rest of the travellers. I gues there was something like 14 or15 other passengers a young couple with a baby who went all the way, an elderly pair of women obviously going walking decked out in boots, with Leki sticks. Most passengers were, what shall we say, I know older than us

One group of children got off at the first stop and the other group midway through the canal that links lakes Neuchatel and Murten. I spent a little time on deck, whilst breezy it was not really cold although raining a little. A pretty peaceful way to travel, although the the chairs were not that comfortable being dining table type.

Once we arrived at Merton we had to shoot through the very charming town to catch a train to Bern, we did have time to stop at the chemist to purchase some lip balsam, now that ws fun. Merten is in a German speaking part of Switzerland whilst Neuchatel is in French. We know a little French but very little German, limited to 'Donwater blitzen', 'Shoot the Englander' and 'Himmel, snell snell ( can't even spell it) all, sayings picked up from reading a Commando War books and The Victor comic. Beverley ended up spending SF10 on 'veery good ceam'.

The trip from Murten to Bern was pleasant enough through nice open countryside, lots of fields growing lots of Market Gareen produce. A number of the stations were hail and ride or I should say  'Halt Auf Verlangen' in fact a number of the stations were really small and in the middle of nowhere, well at least they appeared to be - Ferenbalm-Gurbru and Gummenen being particular examples.

Bern was a particularly horrible station, deep underground dark and dingy very much like Birmingham New Street. These Swiss stations have vast numbers of Platforms with trains arriving and departing all the time, never a dull moment and a train spotters paradise.

Having negotiated our way out of the Station we headed for the old town of Bern. Bern boasts the Parliament building for the Swiss confederation, unlike the Houses of Parliament you can get up close and touch the building fabric, if you want to, I didn't I might add.

Bern was a very attractive City, the main Street (Martgasse, Kramgasse and Gerechtigkaitsgasse) down to the river were flanked on each side by impressive buildings and a covered walkway where the shops were and then under the shops were cellars opening into the street which are also used as shops. There we a lot of tourist about in big groups being led by guides with poles (no not the Eastern European type).

The bottom half of the Main streets are for people only apart from deliveries and trolley busses. Once you are at the far end of the City you cross the river (Aare) and you come to the Bear pits. Bern and bears go back a long way, why I don't know but they are displayed on their flag. I guess it's a bit like the Ravens at the Tower of London or the Bamboons on the Rock of Gibralter.  There were I think four bears in the enclosure, brown ones they appeared happy enough, having been born in captivity I guess they don't know any difference, Beverley found it a little sad.

We returned to the Station via another route and picked up, some great postcards, pricy but really good, old posters of Swiss Travel and local paintings. We spent a good two and half hours in Berne and then moved onto Interlaken. I had seen this railway on Sunday when Charlie had driven off down to Grund. It's pretty scenic running along the length of Thuner See (Lake Thurn). Unfortunately we got off at Interlaken Ost rather than West which is in the centre of town. We only had a hour before the return trip so visited the coop, and had a coffee, I also bought at padlock for my rucsac as I had felt a little vunerable at Bern station following the events at Paris on Saturday.

The return trip was the same way back but without the boat trip. In all we caught four trains none of them were late, none of them cancelled, in fact I did not see any cancelled or delayed trains advertised.

It's Gorgeous in the Rain - A gorge walk to Boudry - 23 June 2014

Today Barbara took us on a Gorge walk along the L'Areuse from Noiraigue to Boudry, she advised us there was such and such a percentage of rain at various times of the day starting early afternoon so it would be best to start as soon as possible, these rain forecast proved to be pretty accurate.

Scenic bridge

We caught the 10:40 train from Neuchatel to Noiraigue which goes along the same line as when arrivistes on Saturday, the views were still magnificent. It was short journey of about twenty minutes. There's were quite a few other passengers, including the first party of suitcase totting teenagers.

Our arrival at Noiraigue was welcomed by beautiful warm sunshine, the village appeared to be a one horse town and in the UK this station would have long been closed but it was a major conurbation compared to the previous station Champ du Moulin where the trains passed. It's amazing to think that this one track line with passing points is the main route into Neuchatel from France.

The first part of the walk took as along the by the railway, no trains due for over an hour, but as we passed a small crossing the lights flashed a train was on its way, much to my excitement it was a little electric shunter with a few empty trucks hurtling at great speed, I quickly wiped out the video and caught it on film. The driver joined in with all the excitement, waving and flashing his lights, only the hooting of the horn was missing.

Well, regardless of how the rest of the day turned out I was made up with that little episode. I had asked Beverley to photograph the train as it passed, she failed, the train looks like a blot on the landscape!

 

Barbara told us the walk was split into sections the first of about an hour to the Trout Hotel, sorry can't recall the French spelling, certainly more welcoming than the trout hotel, were we would stop for a beer and the second section to wherever we wanted to stop for lunch and then the last section to Boudry which would take about 2 hours from the the first beer stop. When we arrived at Boudry there would be an opportunity for another beer needless to say!

The walk was very enjoyable, starting off on a well defined paths then moving on to rocky paths deep in the gorge. There were pretty little bridges, wobbly bridges delivered by helicopter, if the sign was read correctly, walkways bolted on to the gorge side, tunnels Hearn into the rock face, all very exciting. All long the route were buildings belonging to the local water company, many of these were painted in pastel colours, there were weirs, built up steps, overflow channels etc. all along the route. 

On arrival at the Trout Hotel (Grande Salle de I Hotel) we had a welcome glass of beer. On departure we came across the second group of suitcase totting teenagers no doubt on some sort of school trip. It was shortly after this that it began to rain, getting harder and harder as the afternoon progressed. I was fine not only did I have my waterproof jacket I also had waterproof trousers which I put on to prove a point - did I suffer from confiscation or did I suffer, I also had an umbrella!
 

We did not come across very many people, those we did tended to have dogs, and we exchanged pleasantries, well I think we did. The picnic bench were Barbara had hoped to have lunch was soaking wet, not unsurprisingly, so we stood under a cliff overhang and ate our sandwiches.

The rain died down a little but soon got back up to speed for the rest of the walk, the later parts took us deep into the gorge which was mightily impressive, it must be quite a sight during the winter / spring with the water rushing down, some of the rocks in the river were huge.

Having arrived at Boudry, I went through my comedy act of buying stamps at the post office which involved use of my limited French and sign language, but I coped. I then had a manifestation, another gang of teenage suitcase totters!

We had another couple of beers and caught the Tram back to Neuchatel, by now the rain had stopped. As a postscript we were entertained to a quite remarkable electric storm across the lake over the Alps that night.

Happiness is a Mountain called Mannlichen - Sunday 22nd June

We need to leave at 08:30 Barbara announced as we blurry eyed stumbled to bed after a few bottles of red and countless wheat beers at about 23:20. 8 hours later I stumbled down the stairs for breakfast. It had been a restless night, with rock music being played until the early hours of the morning, with the crows taking over a couple of hours later not helping my hangover a great deal.

I think we finally left at about something o'clock to make our way to Grund at the foot of Mannlichen, 7,317 feet tall. This also happens to be one of the stations for the Jungfrau (13,642 feet) Although you need to change at Kleine Scheidegg and also fork out a mean SwissFrancs 170 for a return trip, I satisfied myself with just watching the trains come and go on this rack railway with a nice ice cold beer in my hand, a mere SwissFrancs 5 together with a bowl of chips only SwissFrancs 7 a bowl, that's well over a fiver.

Anyway having arrived at Grund following a really nice drive up into the Alps we purchased tickets on the cable car to take us up to the top of the mountain. These tickets would also cover us for the decent from halfway down the mountain.

I'm a seasoned cable car traveller having used the Emirates cable car between the Excel Centre and the O2, so I was not fazed by the low hung car which provided great views of all the surrounding mountains, Wetterhorn, Schreckhorn, Eiger, Monch, Jungfrau, Breithorn and Tschingelhorn, and a couple marmots. Having admired the view we descended to the cable car station at Holenstein. This was a pleasant walk and it was great to see so many young children enjoying it as well. The walk is themed to a rabbit character called Felix and all along the route down there where different places where the rabbit was hidden for children to find, together with an assortment of play objects including little huts on stilts, cow udders to milk, alpine horns to blow and a flying fox to whizz down. A far cry to my time with Sarah hiding smarties left by the smarty man.

We stopped near the local cows, the bovine kind, with their huge bells ding donging whenever they moved their heads, which must drive them mad! Having arrived back at Holnstein we caught the cable car back to Grund and retired to the bar for aforementioned ice cold beers.

On the way back I dozed most of the way, on arrival back at Nechatel we were entertained to a small electrical storm.

A nice day was had by all.

Good start to the holiday and it only got worse!

JHaving survived Emma's high speed drive to Ebbsfleet we discovered that our connection in Paris for Nechatel was cancelled owing to industrial action. Charlie had warned me, but my search that morning showed that the train was running. I tried to find an alternative via the SNCF website but this proved unsuccessful so had to wait until we arrived at Gare de Lyon.

As for the trip on Eurostar this year we travelled in Standard Premier Class, this gives you more room and breakfast and the carriage was noticeable less worn out and shabby. Unfortunately the bloke sitting behind me had verbal diahorrea and anally talked all the way to Paris whilst I managed to pour water all over Beverley.

And so arrival at Gard de Nord, on time and on track, we made our way to RER station. I had planned to purchase four metro tickets so as to save time on the way back. For this purpose I had a ten euro note. Whilst buying the tickets I discoverd the machine did not take notes so I had to use my credit card. Having purchased the tickets we moved on to the platform got a little confused as to which platform but nothing too serious. We arrived at Gard du Lyon in plenty of time to discover that the 11:57 was running but not direct but via Frasne where we had to change. We had a slight problem locating our seats but found them in the end. It was then that I discoverd that my wallet had been stolen. 

Obviously I had been spied taking my wallet out of my rucsac and putting it back in again and somewhere along the route it was lifted and I lost my credit card, debit card and about Swiss Francs 400, together with all my associated membership cards. The biggest problem was trying to report the loss as we could not get connected, after about an hour I manged to complete this task.

Obviously this was a great start to the holiday and left me really down, but hey it could have been worse I normally carry all the money.

I normally enjoy the train journey but what with trying to contact various card copies it was rather spoilt, but having arrived at Frasne we transferred to a local service and this took us through some marvellous countyside of the Jura mountains. We arrived at Neuchatel dead on time at 15:56 and were duly meet by Barbara and Charlie to be taken to their apartment and a very welcome drink, one of many over the course of the evening, whilst we enjoyed the marvellous views across Lake Neuchatel to the Alps. By the way Beverley brooms are used for sweeping not for playing music!

Things are beginning to take on a better complexiation and I can now start to, enjoy my holiday!

London Loop Harold Wood to Rainham 9 miles 13 June 2014

And so the penultimate journey on the less than inspiring London Loop, although at the time I did not realise I would have to make yet another return trip to complete the long distance path, but it was my choice. I decided I wanted to enjoy the last 5.5 miles alongside the River Thames rather than forcing myself to complete the trip today. I may even be able to tie in the last leg with a bus trip across the Dartford Tunnel, now that would be a bonus!

After last week's panic walk I was fortunate to be on a course on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (BCS Specialist Certificate in Change Management) so would be able to get in an early start as once I had completed the exam on Friday I would be able to leave. The exam started at 14:00 and I was away by 15:40 but not until I had suffered at the examiners cruel sense of humour. We had done the mock the day before, the lecturer told us if you had scored 14/15 you were doing very well. I scored 16 (sufficient to gain a pass) and very much out of character I felt pretty confident, so much so I did not even bother doing any revision.

Oh dear the exam was extremely difficult, the questions themselves where a struggle just to read all being over a page long. I manfully struggle through the paper and got to ten minutes to go and still had five questions to answer, 25 in total, and I had not transposed my answers to the answer sheet. I rushed through the last five without too much thought, most probably a good thing and transposed my answers and left. I don't hold out much hope of a pass to be honest, and what's more my job will be in a right two and eight when I get back on Monday!

But at least I was out early, I ended up catching the 16:07 from Liverpool Street Station arriving at Harold Wood at 17:47. It was extremely hot, with heat bouncing off the pavement, but this week I had wisely brought along a bottle of orange juice to quench my thirst. 

As it happened I quite enjoyed this walk, it started off going through Harold Wood Park and then into Pages Wood where 110,000 trees were planted in 2001, they are now quite big, should be good when fully grown. The Ingrebourne River was never far away either being on my right or left.

After Pages Wood it was a stomp along a busy road into a small housing estate and then a skirt around a large field of wheat which backed onto a School. This took me into Upminster Bridge, part of Hornchurch and further walking through housing. I took a short diversion to visit Upminster Mill 97, this is a Windmill in case your wondering. Since the guide book was written its been re-stored and very impressive it is too!

After the Windmill the route took me past Hornchurch Football Club, the last time I was here was during the 2007 - 2008 Football Season a time when AFC Wimbledon were getting out of Ryman Premier Division. I remember seeing the sign and thinking if I come back here next season I will tie in part of the Loop. Shows how long I've been doing this walk.

Soon I was entering Ingrebourne Valley, Hackton Parkway a nice stretch of greenery along side the river. Lots of people here, mainly dog walkers but there was also a number of play areas for children. This lead on to Hornchurch Country Park which is on the site of the old RFC Hornchurch aerodrome which saw much action during both the First and Second World Wars. There were a number of Pill boxes and a number of Tobruk's which I last encountered in Normandy.

The walk ended with a trip up Inglebourne Hill, all of 50 feet at the most, but as your close to the Thames you do get a remarkably good view! And then it was onto Rainham, the approach to the village was not very encouraging, duel carriage ways, flaming grill pubs, Tesco superstore and huge roundabouts. However, I was pleasantly surprised by the Village, whilst not boasting very much in the way of  shops it did have some remarkable good buildings and a number of pubs, with Essex man occupying the entrances. The two best buildings a rare example of a complete late-Norman church (St Helen and St Giles) and Rainham Hall were unfortunately under wraps undergoing major repairs.

From Rainham I caught the 19:32 back home via Limehouse and Lewisham and then forget to get off at my own stop - durr!

Short video of the walk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkSQb6JNW90

Oliver Cromwell comes to town and steams off to Seaford - 7 June 2014

It's the 150th anniversary of the steam railway between Brighton and Seaford and to celebrate the event a steam train is running from London Victoria to Seaford departing at 09:45 scheduled to arrive at 11:52 and then will return via Brighton and Eastbourne. It's been a popular charter train so much so a second one is scheduled for tomorrow. For something like £180 you can travel in style, first class Full English on the way out and three course Dinner on the way back.

Oliver Cromwell at Victoria Station

So what did I do, I did the cheap-scape option took the train to Victoria and watched Oliver Cromwell arrive, hauled into the station by a Class 33. Oliver Cromwell is a lovely big engine, a Standard Class 7 Pacific, also known as a Britannia.  A few enthusiasts  had gathered to view the arrival. I tried to get up close but as you would expect the platform around the engine was full of travellers all doing what I wanted to do snap the engine.

I moved on to Herne Hill where the charter was due to pass through at 9:55. As I was walking up the platform a young man with his young son and wife asked me if I was here to see the steam train, I think he was rather relieved when I said yes as there was no one else here to see it.

I took up my position at the end of the platform and the charter arrived almost immediately, it must be early, and indeed it was as it stopped just outside the station for a couple of minutes long enough for me to get soaked as the heavens opened just at this point. When the engine re-started there was a huge release of steam and it continued on its way.

Weather permitting "we" intend to go down to Seaford tomorrow to see the arrival should be good, I know Beverley, Sarah and Flosi are all looking forward to it!

See my video of Oliver Cromwell arriving at Victoria and passing through Herne Hill:

http://youtu.be/MrwFTr_jWO4

London Loop - Chigwell to Harold Wood - Friday 6th June 2014

Almost took off more than I could chew with this section. Having left work at 17:00 I did not arrive at Chigwell until 18:00 I then had an 11 mile walk. Given that I had a 9 mile walk last week and I finished at just gone 9:15 I would be pushing it to finish at a similar time and when it got to 20:45 and I had only covered 6 miles I had visions of floundering around the countryside in the dark and missing the last train home!

But first back to the beginning, the tube journey from Liverpool Street to Chigwell was the journey from hell, the tube was so busy, to think that people have to travel this way every single day of their working lives is beyond belief, I've got it easy on SouthEastern Trains, I get a seat everyday unless there's a cancellation.

Formerly know as The Kings Head

St Mary's Chigwell

Having arrived at Chigwell I retraced my steps and walked up the hill I to Chigwell Village with its delightful church, St Mary's and what my walk guide describe as 'everyone's image of an ancient inn' The Kings Head, unfortunately whilst it's a delightful building, timber framed with leaded light windows it now appears to be an Indian Restuarant called Sheesh. Chigwell village proved to be one of the few highlights of this walk, little did I know at the time.

Leaving Chigwell I cut across country with the hum of cars in the distance or the screams of children from local housing. I then arrived at one of those spots all so common on this trail, a path pushed up against a metal fence edging onto some industrial site, in this case a water treatment centre. This has been a common feature of this whole route, and I like a it of industrial landscape but not like this.

I'm on a downer, I need something to pick me up, unfortunately there is isn't very much, some woods, a large open expanse of grass which could have had a good view over London but for the haze, and then of course I stumbled on to a golf course. I did last week and I expect I will next week. I always get the feeling walkers are unwelcome, but of course we are. In this case I was directed through a strip of woodland.

Woodhenge Owl

Lake in the Park

However things were soon to pick up temporarially, whilst walking through some trees there's a five way sign, one points to Woodhenge, no idea what this is, no mention of this in my out of date guide book but a few steps on and to my right are a number of carved wooden pillers, ah Woodhenge. There's one particular branched trunk that's been carved into an owl. 

Next highlight did not arrive until I had gone through pikeyville. The route took me through Havering Country Park and here there are some 100 Giant Redwood (Sequoia) trees which line a track that used to lead to a mansion house here, and were they impressive, yes they were and they stil have a lot of growing to go. A short burst of the lumberjack song was called for! I must add that Jack Woods were I live also has a couple of giant redwoods!

Giant Redwoods

Sun sets through Pyrgo Park gateposts

The track leads me to Havering-atte-Bower and it was at this point I realised I had covered six miles and it was alreay 20:45, 28 minutes to sunset, drastic action was called for and I had to speed up, I even run parts of the way. Actually running is a bit of an exaggeration maybe jog, anyway it did the trick as I managed the last five miles in slightly over an hour.

Some of the views on this section with the sun setting were quite good but I did not have time to enjoy them and the last couple of miles took me through a housing estate along a number of joined up parks, not very inspiring.

I arrived at Harold Wood station and as I stepped onto the platform my train arrived (21:52) to take me back into London.

A final sunset over the Essex countryside

Overall impressions of this walk, not so good, last week's was nicer, good highlights but generally disappointing, but hey the weather was good. Saw more people this week mainly dog walkers with those rather aggressive looking dogs, just the type of Dogs you need in this part of London no doubt.

Short video of today's walk

http://youtu.be/rx0THdHuF2g

London Loop Enfield Lock to Chigwell video

A short video of my walk from Enfield Lock to Chigwell on Friday 30th May